Telkomsel Doubles Down on Gojek Bet

Jakarta. Telekomunikasi Seluler, or Telkomsel, the cellular operator unit of Indonesia's largest telecom company Telkom Indonesia, has injected $300 million new investment in ride-hailing decacorn Aplikasi Karya Anak Bangsa, or Gojek Indonesia, a move that the company hope would strengthen its position in digital businesses. 

Setyanto Hantoro, Telkomsel's president director, said the new investment in Gojek would help it strive in the digital connectivity, digital platforms, and digital services.

"The growing needs of the Indonesian people require a holistic ecosystem. This can be realized through a synergy between the two companies," Setyanto said on Monday.

Telkomsel's investment came just five months after its first investment of $150-million in November and got full backing from Telkomsel's shareholders, namely Telkom Indonesia and Singapore's telecom company Singtel Group. 

In the past two years, Telkomsel and Gojek has integrated their digital ecosystem to bring various services to small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and ride-hailing driver-partners

These include the integration of the Telkomsel MyAds advertisement service with GoBiz to help Gojek's MSME to promote its business. The partners can also become reseller partners through the DigiPOS Aja application! thus helping to increase income.

Telkomsel provides Gojek driver-partners with a special mobile service package. The companies also engage in co-marketing collaboration of games services through Telkomsel, Dunia Games, and GoPay, to provide added value for PUBGM users through cooperation with Tencent.

Andre Soelistyo, Gojek's co-chief executive officer, said that strategic partnership with Telkomsel would optimize the resources and technology expertise of each company to innovate and expand the benefits of the digital economy.

"We believe at the same time are committed that this partnership will support the acceleration of Indonesia's digital transformation which will strengthen Indonesia's position as the leader in the digital economy market in Southeast Asia," Andre said.